


Bad Guy

by gangfriend



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Domestic Violence, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Obsessive Rio (Good Girls), Reflection, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:08:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27078589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gangfriend/pseuds/gangfriend
Summary: Rio reflects on the rabbit hole that is Elizabeth Boland and how he ever let himself fall down it.also a bit of a riff on "Nah,  you're way more interesting than that. "Set before 2x04.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Comments: 13
Kudos: 61





	Bad Guy

As a kid, he loved comics. Collected em, read em then re-read em. He'd spend every cent he ever found on a new issue, that was until he eventually just started slipping them under the breast of his jacket and strolling out of the shop. 

He still loved em now. The best part? The bad guy. Sure, heroes were great and all, but they were predictable.

Back then he could usually be found cross-legged on his tiny twin bed washed in the light of a single flashlight bulb. His chubby kid fingers would race to turn the pages as Batman swooped in with a one-liner that made his little heart pump with anticipation.

One night, Rio heard a familiar crash outside his bedroom door. Flicking off the light, he slowly closed his book and shuffled back into a "sleeping position" as his stomach twisted. The flashlight’s now absent light enclosing his room in an inky blackness. 

There was no question what was happening, it was a tired song and he knew all the words by heart.

It always opened with a steady hum of swearing and high-pitched insults. The chorus was a choir of screams and drunken threats.

Things would break and crash like symbols clashing, he’d wake to his toys dented with impact and strewn along the opposite side of the living room floor.

Eventually, in a tragic decrescendo, he’d hear his mother’s voice – slurred and sticky sweet with gin –begging for peace with one hundred apologies. That was the part he hated the most.

Suddenly, Rio’s ears perked as he took in an odd beat, a change in rhythm. There was horrific choking, a hollow thud, then hushed cursing. His body went rigid, waiting and listening for a booming voice to retaliate. The silence drummed in his ears.

His mother caught his eyes the moment he timidly emerged from the frame of his bedroom door.

“Christopher.” It was soft. It wasn’t a statement or a question. It just was.

They blinked at one another. Her boyfriend’s limp body on the ground between them. 

* * *

He returned again and again to the simple and straight-forward world inside the colorful pages of his comic books. With his life far from black and white, there was comfort in the heavy handed dichotomy of good and evil.

But heroes weren't real. 

He grew taller and cops started stopping him. Citing bullshit policy, they’d push and prod at him with smug entitlement.

He grew older and his brother started bringing home wads of cash. He’d watch as the money was passed to his mother, an eagle rippling on his brother’s bicep.

That cash turned into a hot dinner, it got rid of the motel supervisor that would leer at his mom. Eventually, his brother’s cash afforded them an escape, an apartment with a lock on the door and windows that closed all the way.

As a young teenager, comics became comforting in a different sorta way. Less and less did Spiderman catching the bad guys bring him that old surge of satisfaction. But Thanos, Killmonger? They had something to say. They excited him. They made sense to him. Right and wrong didn’t fit so neatly in his mind anymore. It was refreshing when characters embodied the complicated chaos that was coursing through his life. 

So yeah, he wasn’t buying any of this wholesome bravado. All that 'save the world' shit? That was for kids. Why be courageous when you can be smart? Why kill yourself with bravery when everything you’d been taught would protect you had turned out to be shit? 

* * *

Enter Elizabeth. A grown ass woman who fancied herself an upstanding citizen, a certified Good Person, tumbling head first into his world of gray.

At first, he pitied her. He color-coded universe was exhausting, and damn, did she ever look tired. 

However, she _had_ robbed a grocery store – I mean, with a toy gun – but they still had the balls to go through with it. 

What had pushed this woman so violently out of the fantasy that this world was gonna take care of her? How long had she been teetering on that precipice? How much further could she go?

It was obvious this Elizabeth had been walked on her whole life, underestimated and interrupted. It was fascinating to watch her learn to bite back. Her newfound fury was often directed at him which, admittedly, was amusing as hell. 

He was the perfect villain for Elizbeth Boland. It was too good, too easy. She had a taste for power and he figured it wouldn’t be long until she joined him on the other side **.** Elizabeth was slipping fast down the slope of broken systems and corruption, soon she’d realize the only person coming to save her was herself. It was only a matter of time.

_I'll teach you._

For some reason, Elizabeth clung to her morality with annoying naivety. She’d justify her actions with Olympian level of mental gymnastics. In her mind, her and Rio were wholly different people. She was a desperate mother facing hard times, and he was a dangerous criminal. They were both breaking the fucking law, so he didn’t really get it but she drew a line between them and refused to cross it.

_What would someone like me be doing with someone like you?_

Hell, he could explain away some of his worst sins too. Anyone could. He aint no psychopath- he’s just tryna make money but there was no point in philosophizing.

She may have been holier-than-thou and a pain in his ass on the best of days, but somewhere along the way Elizabeth became more than just a pity-fueled fascination.

Elizabeth got smart. _Fuck,_ she was smart, smart as hell. She learned fast too, it surprised him.

He found himself wanting to be the focus of her big, blue calculating eyes. He craved the fire that flashed in her eyes whenever he popped up somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be, somewhere in _her_ world. The feeling of running his fingers along her cheeks while her face flickered between fear and lust? That shit kept him up at night.

The plan had always been just to mess with her a bit but now she was playing his game and it fuckin’ turned him on. He couldn’t stop.

So… he blew off some meetings to show up at her son’s swim practice, and her daughter’s dance recital. Texts went ignored as he took time to lean against her kitchen doorframe and stroll around the park just in case she showed.

In turn, she lied to him, stole from him, threw his ass in jail and he knew he should call it quits but … the higher the stakes, the more enticing Elizabeth became.

Then, shit, he started doin’ things he wouldn’t normally do. Standing on the doorstop of some fucking crack house in the middle of the night... his gun drawn and jaw clenched over what? A pink blanket?

He thought of her panic-stricken eyes. Maybe she was just a Mom caught in hard times, trying her best. I mean, with a husband like that…

On they danced. She’d call and he’d answer. She’d say jump and he’d jump, with a price of course but still…

His guys started to notice. As two of ‘em lugged a bloated garbage bag over a mound of trash, reeking of death and all things dying – Rio found him self in the middle of a couple loaded glances that he didn’t much appreciate.

‘You got sumthin to say?’

‘Nah Boss’.

It was late one night, under the dim lights of the bar, that Rio mulled all this over. He was in the midst of chewing on his actions and chasing them down with gin when he glanced over his shoulder.

There she was. She was in his bar, popping up in _his_ world.

This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. _He_ was the mysterious one with the shady worldview and the one-liners. _He_ was the mastermind with an ace up his sleeve.

Yet, once again, he followed her siren call. He held no cards as he hopped off his stool and walked towards the bathroom door.

_Fuck_

He was in deep, and he knew it.

Elizabeth had never been disillusioned by ideas of fairness and justice, that became obvious as he locked eyes with her reflection. Maybe he’d created a monster, or maybe he'd been the naive one, thinking she was playing his game when really he was playing hers all along.

Either way, she was writing her own rules. This was a woman who knew damn well how to get what she wants.

He slid his hand up her thigh.

I mean, there he was, glaring back at her in the mirror. There was no point in denying that he was about to give her _exactly_ what she wanted. 

It was suddenly crystal fuckin’ clear. She's the bad guy. 

She wasn’t just some good girl gone bad, wasn’t that simple.

Turns out, like all good villains, she’s way more interesting than that. 

**Author's Note:**

> Alexa play Billie Eilish. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed that!! Elizabeth with secrets and tricks is my favorite Elizabeth. 
> 
> I also am aware that the boomer body retreaval, and the dubby happened AFTER they bathroom-breaked but... well...not in this universe. 
> 
> ❤️❤️❤️


End file.
